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it was only this quote: "Chess IS harder than checkers. No matter how you want to spin it."
this bothered me, considering your admitted lack of experience with the game to make a statement like that
as mentioned up thread, this is statement is only true when involving computers - however, at this point, checkers programs beat the best human checker players and chess programs beat the best chess players
for humans, the games are equally difficult and no human is unbeatable in either - I love discussing it though, even though I admit I can sometimes get defensive knowing how much there really is to learn and how much time I've spent studying the game, merely to crack the surface
I'd still like to play some games with you online somewhere - maybe I can open your eyes to a whole new world of strategy =)
---------- Post added at 11:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:35 PM ----------
A good friend of mine who plays both games in tournaments, said this:
There are about 500 quintillion possible positions in checkers, and even the Chinook endgame database can only handle about 39 trillion of those with absolute certainty. And unlike in chess, where many weak positions can be salvaged by trickery or counter-play of some sort, weak moves in checkers are generally both permanent (since men can't move backwards) and fatal. Sure, there are a select few man-down gambits, but nothing approaching the level in chess.
Overall, I'd put it this way: chess and checkers are both difficult and nearly impossible for humans to master, but for different reasons. In checkers, there are so many critical positions that you have to memorize many lines of exact play, but the actual tactics are fairly straightforward. But in chess, memorization is less useful since there are so many sound variations of a given opening, so you have to learn a lot more tactics and ways to recognize when those tactics will come up. Or, to use Marion Tinsley's quote: "Chess is like looking across a never ending ocean. Checkers is like looking down a bottomless well."
I've got more material on Marion Tinsley and the program Chinook if your interested. I have lots of resources in fact. haha
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